The emergence of departments of strategic planning within both State and local government in recent years is indicative of a growing concern about the future course of residential and industrial change within particular jurisdictions. The challenges to this task have never been greater, due to the rate at which change is occurring and the complex mix of interrelated factors (technological, social, economic, institutional and governmental) contributing to change in metropolitan and non-metropolitan settings. Numerous examples exist to underscore this situation. For example, as the rate of technological change increases, the time lapse between technological discovery and realization of commercial potential narrows: from thirty years (pre World War I) to sixteen years (inter-war) to less than ten years during the 1960s (Lanford 1972). This is reflected in the, at times, bewildering array of products entering the market place. The rate of societal change is no less dramatic. Consider, as one example, the redefinition of roles for men and women in the home and at work where there has been a shift, in the space of a generation, from a dominant 'traditional family model' (where the wife does more of the housework and less of the paid work), to alternative modes such as the 'equal family model' (where husband and wife share equally in paid employment, household duties and child care), or the 'modified family model' (where the husband does more of the paid work and less of the housework). Associated with both technological and societal change is the shift in the structure of the labour force in contemporary western societies: from one strongly manufacturing and service orientated prior to the Second World War to one which is increasingly orientated towards services and information (Brotchie et al. 1985). [Introduction]